04.30.07

“First, a word for our brave American fighting men and women on the battlefield. The war is lost. Your cause is hopeless. Your country has abandoned you. Lay down your arms and go home — while you still can.”

One might be forgiven for thinking I am paraphrasing enemy propagandists Hanoi Hannah, Tokyo Rose or Lord Haw Haw. But I am not. I wish I were.

Instead, it was the Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid of Nevada preaching defeat on the battlefield.

“This war is lost, and this surge is not accomplishing anything, as is shown by the extreme violence in Iraq this week,” Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters, referring to the US-led security push in Baghdad.

So, the war is lost. If America lost the war, then that means that somebody else won it. And, if the war is lost, who lost it?

Was it America’s armed forces? Was it the Marines? The Army? Was it the British forces in southern Iraq?

Nobody in their right mind would argue that al-Qaeda and the other terrorists are capable of defeating the United States of America on the battlefield. The enemy has been decisively defeated in every single engagement with US forces.

There are no exceptions. There were no battles in which our forces were beaten back or forced to withdraw militarily. Reid’s declaration of defeat in Iraq is analogous to the LAPD chief declaring the war against gang violence a lost cause because there are still gangs roaming the streets of LA.

LA’s street gangs haven’t disbanded, surrendered, joined the LAPD, or given up their criminal behavior. The cops still complain they need more men on the street to combat the gangs, and LA’s citizens still proceed with caution in certain parts of town, and absolutely avoid other parts.

There are parts of LA that even the LAPD hesitates to go without calling for back up before they get there. But the LAPD hasn’t declared defeat. What do you suppose would happen if they did? Would the gangs then disband and go home?

If America has lost the war, then it means that al-Qaeda won it. And they aren’t going to disband and go home, either.

One conservative blogger, Jeff Emmanuel, attempted to make sense of the Left’s argument that Reid’s statement did not ’embolden the enemy’.

“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s pronouncement yesterday that “the war is lost” was made solely to Congress and to the American people, right? I mean, it’s not like our enemies actually care or pay attention to what is said by those in leadership positions in our government (such as Bush Lied, US troops are Nazi storm troopers, etc., etc.) — right?”

Emanuel, then citing coverage of the story in Al Jazeera and Iranian press , answered himself. “Oops.”

If America has lost the war in Iraq, yet American forces remain undefeated on the battlefield, then we must return to the question, “Who lost it?” together with the followup question of, “How?”

During the early days of World War II, Germany launched the “Battle of Britain” in which Goering’s Luftwaffe sent wave after wave of heavy bombers across the English Channel to bomb civilian targets.

Why did Hitler concentrate his forces on civilian, rather than military targets? In 1940, Great Britain was dotted with airfields, munitions factories, shipyards and heavy manufacturing, but Hitler’s bombers concentrated their attention on London and other large English cities.

Indeed, the RAF was successful in beating back the Luftwaffe BECAUSE the raids were focused on civilian targets instead of RAF airfields. In all, the Blitz claimed 27,450 civilian lives. Hitler believed breaking the British will to fight was more important than destroying their ability to fight.

Later, when British and American bombers attacked German targets, they also concentrated on civilian targets. The firebombing of Dresden killed more than 35,000 German civilians.

In 1945, as American forces closed in on the island of Japan, it was feared that a US invasion of the home island could result in as many as a million casualties. Instead, the US dropped the world’s first nuclear weapon on Hiroshima, and followed up with a nuclear attack against Nagasaki.

The civilian death toll in those attacks was estimated to top 100,000 civilians. Neither Hiroshima or Nagasaki had any more military value than did London, Coventry or Dresden. Why did all sides expend millions of tons of high explosive ordnance on targets that had no military value?

The answer is simple.

To break the will of the civilian population and destroy their will to fight in the hope that domestic pressure would force the government to surrender. That’s why Hitler bombed London. It is why Dresden and Tokyo were firebombed, and why America dropped the Bomb on Japan.

Militarily, the Germans could have fought on for years, had the will of the people not been broken. So could the Japanese. Both sides could have engaged in guerilla war against the Allies, even after the surrender.

But they didn’t, because their will to fight had been broken. Their losses were too great to sustain. They surrendered unconditionally.

Returning to the question of how America ‘lost’ the war in Iraq, assuming Senator Reid’s assessment is accurate, the answer must be the same. The terrorists have broken America’s will to fight. The enemy has won. But it wasn’t the terrorists who defeated America. It was Harry Reid and Company.

And it wasn’t the carnage inflicted on Americans that defeated America. It was the political ambitions of the Left and its hatred of George Bush and the ‘neocons’. The distinctions between right and wrong have been blurred by the differences between Right and Left.

If Harry Reid is correct, al Qaeda wins. And all our losses and all the sacrifices made by our troops were for nothing. All the post-9/11 yellow ribbons, all the American flags, all the rhetoric and bravado were just a sham.

And all the claims of supporting our troops in harm’s way? A lie. So, if Harry Reid is correct, al Qaeda wins. And may God have mercy on America.

I’ve been watching this Egyptian blogger for some time now, and like what he has to say. I’m sorry to have to report that due to security concerns, he is going to have to stop blogging.
Unlike here in the U.S. saying things against Islam in Egypt is against the law. One can be thrown in jail for a very long time for criticizing Islam, and that’s one of the nicer thing they do to people there.
Here at this blog, we utilize a certain amount of anonymity for safety reasons. With people randomly killing people at universities and malls, it is not much of stretch to realize that some crazy, who doesn’t like what we say here might want to add us his “hit list”. Maybe we’re being paranoid or even believe ourselves to be more “important” then we really are. None the less, we do try to keep our families safe, if nothing else.

Done

Today is going to be the day that I’ve been dreading for quite sometime now. Today is the day I walk away from this blog. Done. Finished.

There are many reasons, each would take a post to list, and I just do not have the energy to list them. As anyone who has been reading this blog for the past month, I think it is apparent that things are not the same with me. There are reasons for that:

One of the chief reasons is the fact that there has been too much heat around me lately. I no longer believe that my anonymity is kept, especially with State Secuirty agents lurking around my street and asking questions about me since that day. I ignore that, the same way I ignored all the clicking noises that my phones started to exhibit all of a sudden, or the law suit filed by Judge Mourad on my friends, and instead grew bolder and more reckless at a time where everybody else started being more cautious. It took me a while to take note of the fear that has been gripping our little blogsphere and comprehend what it really means. The prospects for improvment, to put it slightly, look pretty grim. I was the model of caution, and believing in my invincipility by managing not to get arrested for the past 2 and a half years, I’ve grown reckless. Stupid Monkey. Stupid!

And speaking of the state of the egyptian blogsphere, it has been pretty depressing in its own right. One has to wonder at some point the futulity of being a keyboard warrior in a country where nothing seems to matter to its people anymore. At the same time, there has been those amongst us who have loved the fame and the attention, and are now becoming the egyptian blogsphere’s equivelant of Paris Hilton: They are famous for being famous, peddling the same stories and not really presenting anything of value to the debate. And then there is the fact that we are entering the “Iconogrphy” phase : We are becoming Icons. Too much Media attention, too many american organizations claiming to champion our causes while they are cashing out in donation from people gullible enough to believe them, too much hype generated by us and others, so many of us tooting our own horns and even crying wolf at times has made Icons of us. We now have young bloggers who come up to many of us “Old Guard” and tell us how they are such great fans of ours, and how we are their role models and heroes and how they are starting to blog because of our “courageous example”. And there are those of us who are buying into it, taking in undertsudies to placate our big heads, hooking up with groupies to feed our egos, acting as if we are the warriors for change we are made up to be and forgetting why we started blogging to begin with. It seems that we are entering a state of transformation, and we should either 1) evolve, take the next step whatever it is, 2) stay the way we are and risk becoming carricatures of ourselves or 3) quit. Not knowing what the next step is, and needing time and space to figure it out, I chose the only other option that made sense: I quit!

So here comes my apology to those of you who read me: I am sorry. I really can’t continue to do this. You guys have been the best readers anyone could hope for, altough there are some of you who made me come close to shutting down the comments section many many times. I love you all for everything you have done for me, for all of the egyptian blogsphere. When I asked for your help, you gave us more than a helping hand. You cared. You gave a damn about a bunch of egyptians who had a dream to be free and stood by us in our houres of need. For that you are my heroes, and I can not possibly thank you enough.

It’s all about the money. Anyone who says that Planned Parenthood has the best interest of the mother and child at heart is a fool. Money is the motivation for these murders.

WASHINGTON, April 30 /Christian Newswire/ — Planned Parenthood operates the most proficient killing machine in the United States,” said Douglas R. Scott, Jr., president of Life Decisions International (LDI). “Planned Parenthood claims to prevent the ‘need’ for abortion while simultaneously working to increase its share of the lucrative abortion market.”

“In 2005 alone, Planned Parenthood accepted money to put a ‘hit’ on 264,943 preborn human beings,” Scott said. “And just like other paid killers, a failure to slay the intended victim would have been considered ‘a complication.'” The 2005 figure represents an increase of 3.9 percent over 2004.

Planned Parenthood has confessed to having sold 1,245,506 “emergency” birth control kits in 2005 (nearly 26.6 percent more than in 2004). Every Planned Parenthood “clinic” dispenses “emergency” birth control. Most prescribe it over the phone and accept orders over the Internet, without conducting an examination. In the vast majority of cases, “emergency” birth control causes an abortion.

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) is expected to release its 2005-2006 Annual Report within the next few months. “One can be sure that in addition to killing more human beings that ever before, Planned Parenthood will have taken in more money than ever before,” Scott said. PPFA’s income is rapidly approaching the $1 billion mark. “One can also be sure that Planned Parenthood will end up with tens of millions of dollars in ‘excess revenue over expenses,’ which is known to most people as ‘profit.'”

“Planned Parenthood is in the death business and nobody does it better,” Scott said. “Unfortunately for preborn children, abortion seems to be the only part of Planned Parenthood’s business that can be called ‘provably successful.’ Unfortunately for the whole world, abortion is also the most atrocious part of the goliath’s business.” Planned Parenthood generated an estimated $100 million from committing abortions in 2005 alone.

I think mainstream America will be shocked to learn the beliefs of the Mormon church. America has a “Donnie and Marie Osmond” view of the Mormons that makes them out to be a church for the “wholesome and morally elite”. I think this documentary may change that perception.

Imagine a four-hour documentary on the Mormon church that skips its most prominent member in the country today, Mitt Romney.

Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail | Breaking News Alerts “The Mormons,” a collaboration between PBS powerhouse series ” Frontline ” and ” American Experience, ” is that show. Yet its mere airing may finally force the former governor to explain publicly his faith and its influence on him as a politician, much as John Kennedy did with his Catholicism in 1960. What it will surely do is complicate his run for the White House.

The Romney candidacy notwithstanding, it’s high time that Americans separate fact from fiction about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as it is officially called. The timing is excellent for veteran documentarian Helen Whitney, whose fascinating look at the Mormons airs Monday and Tuesday on WGBH.

Many church members will chafe at Whitney’s spotlight, while countless non-Mormons will be shocked by church history and practices. They will be put off by its secrecy and authoritarian structure. By the absence of black men as full members until 1978. By its early embrace of polygamy.

They will find risible the notion that the Garden of Eden was located in what is now Jackson County, Mo., or that ancient Israelites came to America more than 2 , 000 years ago. The early Christian church looked loony to a lot of people, too, yet it has had 2,000 years to polish its myths. The Mormon church is less than 180 years old.

Still, the Mormons have spooked America since the church’s creation. Joseph Smith was called a fraud when he founded the church in 1830, and despite its best efforts to inject itself into the American cultural mainstream, the church is still viewed with suspicion in some quarters. Polls show that a substantial number of Americans would not vote for a Mormon for president. Catholic and Protestant denominations alike have challenged the inclusion of the church in historic Christianity.

Are the Mormons victims of home-grown bigotry? That is certainly at play. And, notes Yale professor Harold Bloom, America’s Yoda on all things spiritual, “All religion depends on revelation. All revelation is supernatural. If you wish to be a rock hard empiricist, then you should not entertain any religious doctrine whatsoever.”

Kirk Cameron (Christian actor) and Ray Comfort, author of “God Doesn’t Believe in Atheists”, has challenged the creators of the Blasphemy Challenge to a debate that is to be sponsored by ABC. During this debate, Comfort and Cameron will not use the Bible nor will they address their faith in Jesus Christ.
The debate will take place on May 5th in New York City and will eventually be shown on ABC’s Nightline. Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort have an awesome evangelical ministry. They teach a somewhat revolutionary, yet very effective method of sharing the Gospel. You can see more from them at www.wayofthemaster.org.

NEW YORK – A prominent Christian best-selling author is asserting that he can prove the existence of God without using the Bible, and has challenged two atheists to a debate.

“Most people equate atheism with intellectualism,” explained Comfort in a statement, “but it’s actually an intellectual embarrassment. I am amazed at how many people think that God’s existence is a matter of faith. It’s not, and I will prove it at the debate – once and for all. This is not a joke. I will present undeniable scientific proof that God exists.”

The debate is in reaction to the “Blasphemy Challenge” that started late in 2006. The two creators of the movement encouraged all people to tape themselves with a short message that will “damn themselves to hell.” Participants must recite the line “I deny the Holy Spirit,” and then upload their video onto YouTube.

Comfort and Cameron felt that these two would be some of the most difficult people to convince that God does indeed exist, so contacted them about having a discussion.

ABC has said that they will film the debate, which will take place on May 5 in New York City, and will stream it live on their website as well as use footage for their program Nightline. Martin Bashir, co-anchor of Nightline, will moderate the event.

Cameron will use the event to also speak out against evolution, which he thinks is not credible and a major contributor to the growth in atheism.

“Evolution is unscientific. In reality, it is a blind faith that’s preached with religious zeal as the gospel truth. I’m embarrassed to admit that I was once a naïve believer in the theory,” said the former television star in a statement. “Atheism has become very popular in universities – where it’s taught that we evolved from animals and that there are no moral absolutes. So we shouldn’t be surprised when there are school shootings.”

Comfort felt impelled to hold the debate, because he is worried about the state of Christianity around the world, especially in Europe. According to a Zukerman study, in Sweden as many as 85 percent of the population are non-believers; Japan has 65 percent; France with 54 percent; and 44 percent of British citizens do not believe in God.

The report by a reformist daily, later confirmed by an Iranian news agency, appeared to be another sign of authorities cracking down on clothing and other fashion deemed to be against Islamic values.

“Western hairstyles … have been banned,” the newspaper Etemad said in a front-page headline.

It came a week after police launched a crackdown against the growing number of young women testing the limits of the law with shorter, brighter and skimpier clothing ahead of the summer months.

Under Iran’s Islamic Sharia law, imposed after the 1979 revolution, women are obligated to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes to disguise their figures.

Violators can receive lashes, fines and imprisonment.

The student news agency ISNA quoted a police statement as saying: “In an official order to barbershops, they have been warned to avoid using Western hair styles and doing men’s eyebrows.”

Iranian young men have in recent years started paying more attention to the way they look and dress, especially in affluent parts of the capital Tehran. Spiked up hair, by using gel, is known as the Khorusi (Rooster) style and some also use make-up.

Several hairdressers for men in Tehran offer cuts in the style of Hollywood movie stars and other Western celebrities. Clients can also have their eyebrows plucked.

The head of the barbers’ union, Mohammad Eftekharifard, said police had instructed it to “exercise specific regulations in barbershops that work under its supervision.”

Barbers who do not follow these rules might be closed down for a month and even lose their permits to operate, Etemad quoted him as saying.

“Currently some barbershops apply make-up and use (hair) styles that are in line with those in European countries and America,” Eftekharifard said.

He added: “An official order has been sent to the union … not to apply make-up on men’s faces (or) do eyebrows … and hence the barbers are not allowed to do these things.”

Since hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the presidency in 2005 on a promise of returning to the values of the revolution, hardliners have pressed for tighter controls on what they consider immoral behavior.

A gay advocacy group has produced a ‘training’ video that instructs teachers to teach young children that being gay is normal and healthy regardless of what they are taught at home. Normal and healthy? I could go on for days about this, but let me just say that it is not the job of the public school system to educate our kids on sexuality (especially not homosexuality).

A nationally distributed training video produced by a “gay” advocacy group – which claims it’s been shown on more than 100 public television stations – advises teachers to promote homosexuality as normal and healthy to children as young as kindergarten age, regardless of what values the child has been taught at home.

“We are asking kids to believe this [homosexuality] is right. Not as a matter of moral principle, but as a matter of, we’re educating them and this is part of what we consider to be a healthy education,” one unidentified teacher said during the videotaped meeting of educators preparing to teach – or as their critics charge, “brainwash” – their students.

That particular response was to a question from another teacher who wondered how to approach homosexual advocacy when a student comes from a background of biblical teaching, that is, that homosexuality is a sin.

“I don’t know what to do about this but, as a school are we saying that kids have to support this? I guess that’s what it sounds like to me that we’re saying. If a child comes from a background that says homosexuality is not correct, are we telling that child that they’re supposed to, this is what you are supposed to do?” asked the teacher.

04.27.07

We know that traditional marriage is under attack here in America. Seems that (as would be expected) higher education is helping the breakdown of the family.

A Kentucky pro-family group says a decision by the University of Kentucky to give health benefits to the unmarried sexual partners of its employees undermines marriage formation and tramples the state constitution.

The University of Kentucky has approved a plan to provide healthcare benefits to the live-in sexual partners of its staff and faculty. It is the second university in the state to institute a “domestic partner” benefits policy. The University of Louisville voted last summer to do the same thing.

Martin Cothran, senior policy analyst with the Family Foundation of Kentucky, says the school caved in to pressure from left-wing groups on campus. He points out the policy flatly disregards a 2004 voter-approved marriage amendment that defines marriage as between one man and one woman and bars the state from recognizing a legal status similar to marriage.

According to Cothran, individuals must sign an affidavit in order to qualify as a domestic partner. Those affidavits, he says, contain what he calls “marriage language.”

“And those affidavits have to be legally recognized in order to be effective at all,” he adds. “So they’re establishing legal status similar to marriage, and [in doing so] they’re in violation of our state constitution.”

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador – Cliques of the ultra-violent Latin American MS-13 gang have been identified in 42 U.S. states, according to the director of an FBI task force, speaking at a conference here.

Another violent group, the 18th Street Gang, is in 37 states, said Brian Truchon, director of the FBI MS-13 National Gang Task Force, or NGTF.

As WND reported, Truchon spoke at the Third Gang Enforcement Conference 2007 conference, which is focusing on MS-13.

“One thing we figured out with the on-going cases was that Los Angeles is our starting point,” Truchon stressed. “When the gang migrates throughout the U.S., there is always a road back to L.A. From L.A., there is always a road back to Central America.”

I’d like to begin a grassroots effort to send used, but in good condition, Bibles to the leadership of the United Methodist Church (UMC). They apparently have lost their Bibles and don’t recall what is written in them concerning homosexuality and abortion.
I know, I know…you say “the Bible never specifically mentions ‘homosexuality’ or ‘abortion’.” I wish to assure you that even though the Bible never uses these modern terms, the concepts are very well addressed and no great amount of inference is necessary to realize that it condemns, in no uncertain terms, both of these practices.
Now, apparently UMC is a supporter of The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. This latter group has come out strongly against the Supreme Court’s ruling banning the “partial birth abortion” procedure.
If you are not familiar with the partial birth abortion procedure, let me walk you through an overview.
First, the baby is partially delivered, feet first. Then a sharp instrument is smashed into the back of it’s head, producing a hole. A suction tube is inserted into the hole and the baby’s brain is sucked out of it’s head. The head looses shape without the supporting structure of the brain and the corpse is then more easily removed from the birth canal.
Can you see why this procedure needed to be banned? It reads more like a grade “C” horror movie scene than a legitimate surgical procedure. Also, it pushed the “gray area” of live birth. In other words, the people advocating this procedure maintained that even though the baby was 90% birthed, it (the head) was still in the birth canal, and therefore the baby was fair game for an abortion.
These are the type of people the UMC leadership is supporting.

The United Methodist Church is being criticized for its alliance with a pro-abortion coalition. The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice has come out against the U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding the ban on partial-birth abortion, calling it a “serious setback.” The pro-abortion group is supported by several mainline Christian denominations, including the United Methodist Church.

Mark Tooley with the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) says this alliance between the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice and the United Methodist Church does not make sense. But unfortunately, he notes, “this has been the trend among liberal mainline Protestant denominations over the last 40 years.”

It was several of these liberal denominations, not just the Methodists, that helped to create this abortion coalition back in the early 1970s, Tooley points out. “And unfortunately,” he says, “the officers and the bureaucrats and the theologians of many of these mainline denominations heed the demands of feminist theology and the very aura of the sexual revolution.”

In that process, the IRD spokesman adds, these churches “set aside historic Christian teachings, which — of course — disapprove of abortion.”

It appears that California continues to be the battleground of choice for the attempted advancement of the homosexual agenda and attacks on the traditional family. With the liberal state legislature and liberal courts, it should be a shoo-in. It would be anyway, if it wasn’t for those pesky Christians, getting in the way.
Guess I’ll continue to be “pesky”.

A plan that has been launched in the California state Assembly – again – could be used to ban references to “mom” and “dad” in public schools statewide by prohibiting anything that would “reflect adversely” on the homosexual lifestyle choice.

It’s similar to a plan WND reported was approved by lawmakers last year, but fell by the wayside when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed it.

“SB 777 forcibly thrusts young school children into dealing with sexual issues, requiring that homosexuality, bisexuality and transsexuality be taught in a favorable light,” according to an alert issued by the Capitol Resource Institute.

“Not only does SB 777 require that classroom instruction and materials promote and embrace controversial sexual practices, it also bans school-sponsored activities from ‘reflecting adversely’ on homosexuals, bisexuals and transsexuals,” the group said.

“Pushing this radical homosexual agenda in California schools will stifle the truth in favor of political correctness and will inevitably conflict with the religious and moral convictions of both students and parents,” said CRI Executive Director Karen England. “The full ramifications of this sweeping legislation could affect the entire nation as most textbook companies tailor their material to their number one purchaser: California.”

She noted that Los Angeles schools already have implemented most of the proposals now pending for districts across the state, and among the changes are:

* “Mom” and “dad” and “husband” and “wife” would have to be edited from all texts.

* Cheerleading and sports teams would have to be gender-neutral.

* Prom kings and queens would be banned, or if featured, would have to be gender neutral so that the king could be female and the queen male.

* Gender-neutral bathrooms could be required for those confused about their gender identity.

* A male who believes he really is female would be allowed into the women’s restroom, and a woman believing herself a male would be allowed into a men’s room.

* Even scientific information, such has statistics showing AIDS rates in the homosexual community, could be banned.

“It’s embarrassing that we’ve got kids who can’t pass their exit exams, but we add all sorts of complications [to school],” she told WND.

She cited an informational document published by the Gay-Straight Alliance Network and the Transgender Law Center.

“If you want to use a restroom that matches your gender identity … you should be allowed to do so,” it advises. “Whenever students are divided up into boys and girls, you should be allowed to join the group or participate in the program that matches your gender identity as much as possible.”

Further, the groups advise, “If you change your name to one that better matches your gender identity, a school needs to use that name to refer to you.”

Randy Thomasson, of the Campaign for Children and Families, noted that the proposal was made by ‘lesbian state senator Sheila James Kuehl, D-Santa Monica.”

“Schools need to do a much better job teaching kids reading, writing and arithmetic, not a better job advertising controversial sexual lifestyles to captive six-year-olds,” he said.

He also noted that, just as last year, two other bills also are pending: AB 394 by Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D-Van Nuys, would demand that schools distribute to students “anti-harassment” education programs, and AB 675 by Assemblyman Mike Eng, D-Monterey Park, would give $1 million to pay for homosexual, bisexual and transsexual activists to turn 10 public schools into “sexual indoctrination centers.”

Last year three similar bills were approved by California lawmakers, but were vetoed by the governor.

The White Feather has been a symbol for cowardice. I suggest that white feathers be sent to the leaders of the Senate and House for the cowardly vote that abandons our soldiers around the world.

I was in Vietnam the day that the 101st took “Hamburger Hill” — the headline in the Stars and Stripes was Teddy Kennedy’s statement to the effect that it was all such a waste. I am sure it raised the spirits of the folks on top of the hill — I know it gave my morale a boost. Surely these leaders of our country will head out on a USO tour to encourage the troops further.

As far as I am concerned this is a Congress of Quislings.

You can buy ’em online here individually or in bulk.

Laura Lee Donoho was on the same wavelength in January:

I think in addition to the pledge, we need to start a white feather campaign because it’s becoming quite apparent that we have a multitude of Cut and Runners in our Congress. The book and movie, The Four Feathers tells a story of cowardice and redemption. I see nothing but cowardice so far in many Democrats and Republicans in the Senate and House but for the sake of our troops and our country I’m hoping that at least some Republicans redeem themselves.

More anti-Semitic attacks in France by “Middle Eastern” (read as “Muslim”) men.

A 22-year-old Jewish woman suffered a vicious anti-Semitic attack by two men of Middle Eastern appearance in a train station in Marseille, France on Thursday night.

The attackers tore the Star of David chain from around the young woman’s neck, lifted up her shirt, painted a swastika on her stomach and then fled the scene.

Local police opened an investigation into the attack but had not yet found the assailants.

Head of the Jewish Agency delegation in France, David Roche, said the incident was the most severe anti-Semitic attack in France since the murder of the young Jewish male Ilan Halimi by a gang of Muslim youths in February 2006.

As usual, Muslim “youths” (read this as potential future terrorist) lashed out with violence at…read this carefully now: school lessons about living on a farm, specifically when the pigs were mentioned. These “youths” were so incensed by this lesson, that they proceeded to destroy their classroom.
Now, just to show how much out of control the Muslims are and just how pandering the West has become to them, compare this to my previous posts about the infamous “ham sandwich” incident in Lewiston, ME, where a student may be charged with a “hate crime” for putting a ham sandwich on a table where several Somalis, who are Muslims, were sitting.
Wake up people!!

AMSTERDAM, 27/04/07 – A school in Amsterdam has halted lessons on rural life because the Islamic children refused to talk about pigs. Reporting this, Alderman Lodewijk Asscher said he wants to take “tough measures.” Subsidies for all kinds of dubious groups must stop and parents of unruly children penalised financially.

Asscher told newspaper De Volkskrant: “A primary school in Amsterdam-Noord has decided no longer to teach about living on a farm. Various pupils began to demolish the classroom when the pig came up for discussion. Apparently it has gone that far. These children, 9, 10 years old, have not been given even the most elementary rules at home about why they must go to school.”

Asscher, who is also the Labour (PvdA) leader in Amsterdam, wants to subject the parents to an ‘upbringing requirement,’ enforced with negative financial spurs. He is thinking of cuts in the children’s allowance or lower welfare payments. In the Lower House, Youth and Family Minister Rouvoet recently rejected a plea for this from Party for Freedom (PVV).

America’s reputation was built around the concept of the Great American Melting Pot. In happier times, new immigrants would come to America to become Americans. The idea was to melt all the various cultures of all the various immigrants into a single, uniquely American culture.

Under that concept, Americans were not required to adopt the culture of its immigrants, but rather, immigrants were expected to adopt the culture of America. What made it a ‘community’ was that immigrants made ‘the change’ to conform to the existing culture.

The concept of “multiculturalism” — the Holy Grail of the liberal Left — insists that immigrants refuse to assimilate into American culture, forcing immigrants into cultural ‘ghettos’ where liberal politicians can pander to concentrated special interest lobbies.

One can’t win in Florida without the Cuban vote. One can’t win in Texas or California without the Mexican vote. One can’t win in the Northeast without the black vote, or in New York without the Jewish vote. And one can’t win in certain parts of Michigan without the Muslim vote.

So a liberal need only pander to the demands of the various concentrations of minorities to win public office — from which he can strengthen his base by bashing America as a whole as a collection of hateful xenophobes.

One can’t engage in class warfare without some underprivileged class to champion. And the best way to ensure that is to keep immigrants concentrated in ethnic ghettos as exiles from their home countries, rather than as immigrants to the New World.

Zamzan Mahamud’s solution was quoteworthy because her solution fits the liberal agenda — that America that must change its culture to conform to that of its immigrants.

Since America is made up of immigrants from every country in the world, there will always be more changes to demand, more immigrant groups to pander to, and more elections to be won.

LEWISTON – One student has been suspended and more disciplinary action could follow a possible hate crime at Lewiston Middle School, Superintendent Leon Levesque said Wednesday.

On April 11, a white student placed a ham steak in a bag on a lunch table where Somali students were eating. Muslims consider pork unclean and offensive.

The act reminded students of a man who threw a pig’s head into a Lewiston mosque last summer.

The school incident is being treated seriously as “a hate incident,” Levesque said. Lewiston police are investigating, and the Center for the Prevention of Hate Violence is working with the school to create a response plan.

“We’ve got some work to do to turn this around and bring the school community back together again,” Levesque said.

LEWISTON, Maine –Police are investigating as a possible hate crime an incident in which a ham steak was placed in a bag on a lunch table where a group of Somali students were sitting.
Such an incident would be offensive to Somalis, who are Muslims and consider pork unclean.

A Lewiston Middle School student was suspended after the incident, which happened April 11.

Superintendent Leon Levesque said the incident is being treated seriously and police are investigating. The center for the Prevention of Hate Violence is working with the school to devise a response plan.

The incident is the second of its kind in Lewiston in recent months. Last summer, a man rolled a pig’s head into a mosque in Lewiston, which has a large Somali population. A court later ordered the man to stay away from the mosque.

Side Note:
We are in desperate need of more police officers here in the Houston area. If the Lewiston police don’t have enough to do with their time, we could sure use them down here chasing real criminals (you know people who rob, rape, steal and kill).

04.26.07

True to form, the Democrats are pushing for defeat and surrender in Iraq, They have threatened to override the presidents promised veto of the bill.

WASHINGTON — A defiant Democratic-controlled Senate passed legislation Thursday that would require the start of troop withdrawals from Iraq by Oct. 1, propelling Congress toward a historic veto showdown with President Bush on the war.

The 51-46 vote was largely along party lines, and like House passage of the same bill a day earlier, fell far short of the two-thirds margin needed to overturn the president’s threatened veto. Nevertheless, the legislation is the first binding challenge on the war that Democrats have managed to send to Bush since they reclaimed control of both houses of Congress in January.

“The president has failed in his mission to bring peace and stability to the people of Iraq,” said Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.V., chairman of the Appropriations Committee. He later added: “It’s time to bring our troops home from Iraq.”

The $124.2 billion bill requires troop withdrawals to begin Oct. 1, or sooner if the Iraqi government does not meet certain benchmarks. The House passed the measure Wednesday by a 218-208 vote.

Across the Potomac River at the Pentagon, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, told reporters the war effort likely will “get harder before it gets easier.”

Republicans said the vote amounted to little more than political theater because the bill would be dead on arrival after reaching the White House. Bush said he will veto the bill so long as it contains a timetable on Iraq, as well as $20 billion in spending added by Democrats.

“The solution is simple: Take out the surrender date, take out the pork, and get the funds to our troops,” said Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

“We delude ourselves if we think we can wave a legislative wand and suddenly our troops in the field will be able to distinguish between Al Qaeda terrorism or sectarian violence. Or that Iraqis will suddenly settle their political differences because our troops are leaving,” Lieberman said.

Democrats said the bill was on track to arrive on the president’s desk by Tuesday, the anniversary of Bush’s announcement aboard the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln that major combat operations in Iraq had ended.

“The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on Sept. 11, 2001, and still goes on,” Bush said on May 1, 2003, in front of a huge “Mission Accomplished” banner.

Bush since has acknowledged that the war has not progressed as he had hoped. After the November elections in which Democrats swept up enough seats to take the majority, he announced a new strategy that involved sending additional forces to Iraq.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said that if Democratic lawmakers timed the sending of the bill to the anniversary of Bush’s speech, it would be “a ridiculous P.R. stunt.”

“That is the height of cynicism, and absolutely so unfortunate for the men and women in uniform and their families who are watching the debate,” she said Thursday morning.

As Democrats pushed through the bill, Petraeus depicted the situation in Iraq as “exceedingly complex and very tough.” He said there have been some improvements in the two months since Bush’s troop buildup began, but “there is vastly more work to be done across the board. … We are just getting started with the new effort.”

Asked at a Pentagon news conference Thursday about the impact on the effort in Iraq if that legislation passed, Petraeus said, “I have tried to stay clear of the political minefields of various legislative proposals.”

In the House, two Republicans — Reps. Wayne Gilchrest of Maryland and Walter Jones of North Carolina — joined 216 Democrats in passing the bill. Voting no were 195 Republicans and 13 Democrats.

I think that most everyone would agree that there is too much violence on television today. The violence that children see on TV (let’s face it – many parents do not care what their children watch) has to affect children in a negative way. It has been proven that children who watch violent programming become much more aggressive. I hope the FCC is sincere and successful in their efforts to curb this nonsense that we see even in commercials.

WASHINGTON, April 25 — Concerned about an increase in violence on television, the Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday urged lawmakers to consider regulations that would restrict violent programs to late evening, when most children would not be watching.

The commission, in a long-awaited report, concluded that the program ratings system and technology intended to help parents block offensive programs — like the V-chip — had failed to protect children from being regularly exposed to violence.

As a result, the commission recommended that Congress move to limit violence on entertainment programs by giving the agency the authority to define such content and restrict it to late evening television.

It also suggested that Congress adopt legislation that would give consumers the option to buy cable channels “à la carte” — individually or in smaller bundles — so that they would be able to reject channels they did not want.

“Clearly, steps should be taken to protect children from excessively violent programming,” said Kevin J. Martin, the agency’s chairman and a longtime proponent of à la carte programming. “Some might say such action is long overdue. Parents need more tools to protect children from excessively violent programming.”

The commission report, which was requested by Congress three years ago, was sharply criticized by civil liberties advocates and by the cable television industry for proposing steps that both said would be too intrusive.

“These F.C.C. recommendations are political pandering,” said Caroline Fredrickson, director of the Washington legislative office of the American Civil Liberties Union. “The government should not replace parents as decision makers in America’s living rooms. There are some things that the government does well. But deciding what is aired and when on television is not one of them.”

She added: “Government should not parent the parents.”

A spokesman at the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, Brian Dietz, said consumers “are the best judge of which content is appropriate for their household.”

“Simple-sounding solutions, such as à la carte regulation of cable TV packages, are misguided and would endanger cable’s high-quality family-friendly programming, leaving parents and children with fewer viewing options,” he said.

Executives at the major networks said that they wanted to study the report, which was released Wednesday evening, before commenting.

The Left in this country is in full retreat mode. I wish I was speaking about the fact they are retreating from their “let’s give Iraq over to the terrorist” strategy but alas, I am talking about their constant drum beat for a complete pull out of American forces. Listening to the rhetoric coming out of Washington these days is a surreal experience. We are a nation at war with Islamic Fascists who would like nothing better than to end our existence. In the middle of this life or death struggle we are witnessing another war between the democratically controlled congress and the White House. President Bush, love him or hate him, is the Commander in Chief of America’s armed forces. I didn’t’t give him that title….the United States Constitution gave him that title. In the wake of the unprecedented 911 attacks, President Bush was authorized by Congress to wage war against the terrorists. He has done so aggressively first by invading and liberating Afghanistan and then by invading and liberating Iraq. By taking the battle to the terrorists he has prevented them from bringing the battle to us. We should all remember this as we close in on the six year anniversary of 911 without another attack on U.S. soil.

Last week Senator Reid joined the growing number of Democrats who slip up every now and then and tell us what they really think. Senator Reid first said emphatically that the war in Iraq was lost. He then pretended to be some kind of mind reader by suggesting that “the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense also know the war is lost.” When his comments created an immediate firestorm of criticism from both sides of the aisle he backpedaled faster than a cyclist in a 200 mile-an-hour headwind saying that he meant to say something like if we continue to follow the President’s policy the war is lost.

This should remind us of John Kerry, who blew his chance to be a viable candidate for president in 08’ with his supposed joke about American soldiers being “stuck in Iraq” if they don’t get a good education. It should remind us of Joe Biden who had to backpedal after describing Barak Obama as “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.” The spin-misters and damage control experts leaped into action after each one of these gaffes which were actually not gaffes at all but true insights into the mindset of the left.

A few days after his “the war is lost” speech, (what an inspiration….for our enemies) Senator Reid said President Bush was in “a state of denial.” He went on to say Bush, “is the only person who fails to face this war’s reality – and that failure is devastating not just for Iraq’s future, but for ours.”

Since Senator Reid brought up the subject of reality let’s conduct a little reality check. The reality in Iraq is slow and steady progress in the face of a determined enemy who knows what it takes to create mayhem and grab a depressing headline in this country. Our enemy knows we don’t have the stomach for a protracted war so all he has to do is cause enough death and destruction for us to cry uncle. Just like in the Vietnam conflict, it will be politicians and their media counterparts and not the men and women of the U.S. military who run for the high grass.

The reality is last month the Iraqi southern province of Maysan became the fourth province to come under full Iraqi security. Speaking about the peaceful transfer of power, Gen. David Pertraeus said the handover “demonstrates another step toward a stable and secure Iraq.” I don’t know about you but that sounds like real progress to me. I wonder why it wasn’t the lead story on CNN or on page one in The New York Times.

Another reality Senator Reid might want to consider is the report of his fellow Senator Lindsay Graham who just returned from Iraq. Senator Graham appeared on my radio show (Christian Worldview Today on Christian Talk 660, M-F from 7 to 9am) last week and said the surge is already showing dividends. He said the security situation in An bar Province is much better with the leading Sheiks actually calling for people to join the police force. Many Sunni leaders are beginning to openly reject Al Qaeda and recently the Iraqi justice system brought a Shea police official to trial for torturing a Sunni. Senator Graham concluded by saying, “We must not allow car and suicide bombers to dictate our foreign policy.”

That is exactly what the terrorists hope will happen. They hope their headline grabbing suicide attacks will finish off our already weakened resolve forcing us to leave Iraq so that it can become little more than a platform from which they can export their terrorist tactics. The American Left has hitched their political wagon to failure in Iraq. If the war were to turn around with demonstrable progress giving the Iraqi people a chance at democracy it would greatly reduce their chances of winning the White House and maintaining their congressional majority.

America cannot afford to lose Iraq to the control of Islamic extremist. It would fast become a puppet nation with its strings pulled by Iran and Syria. This would completely destabilize the region giving a huge victory to our enemies. It would embolden Al Qaeda, proving that Osama Ben Laden was right to label us a paper tiger. We must find the resolve to stop the surrender and find a clear path to victory

Here is more information concerning a bill in congress that will make homosexuals a special protected group of people and then levy punishment against ANYONE who speaks against them. This would include pastors quoting from the Bible in regards to the sin of homosexuality.
Christians, if you have not contacted your congressperson, now is the time to do so. There is no more time to wait. This bill will do exactly what Christians have feared for so many years…it will make it a crime to profess a belief in the Bible.

A fast-tracked congressional plan to add special protections for homosexuals to federal law would turn “thoughts, feelings, and beliefs” into criminal offenses and put Christians in the bull’s-eye, according to opponents.

“H.R. 1592 is a discriminatory measure that criminalizes thoughts, feelings, and beliefs [and] has the potential of interfering with religious liberty and freedom of speech,” according to a white paper submitted by Glen Lavy, of the Alliance Defense Fund.

“As James Jacobs and Kimberly Potter observed in Hate Crimes, Criminal Law, and Identity Politics, ‘It would appear that the only additional purpose [for enhancing punishment of bias crimes] is to provide extra punishment based on the offender’s politically incorrect opinions and viewpoints,'” said Lavy.

The proposal has been endorsed by majority Democrats on the committee, and already has 137 sponsors in the full House, making it possible it could be voted on in a matter of days or weeks.

“This is a terrible thing, to criminalize thought or emotion or even speech,” Lavy told WND, referring to H.R. 1592, now pending at the committee level in the U.S. House. Democrats there have been turning back amendments that would strip it of its worst provisions, according to an observer.

Bishop Harry Jackson, chairman of the High Impact Leadership Coalition, said the plan, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Protection Act of 2007, is no more than “a surreptitious attempt by some in Congress to strip the nation of religious freedom and the ability to preach the gospel from our church pulpits.”

“It will stamp all over our doctrine and practice of our faith,” he said. “We believe what the Bible says. If you start there we’ve got a major problem.”

Secondly, it unfairly restricts the expression of fair opinion by Christians, he told WND. “If anything, gays are getting undue deference awarded to them by the courts. That’s why we have the same-sex marriage fight and that kind of thing.”

Rev. Louis Sheldon, director of the Traditional Values Coalition, which represents 43,000 churches across the nation, told WND that the Democrats sponsoring and supporting the issue “have sold out to the homosexual agenda.”

He said churches need to awaken to the dangers of having pastors, lay leaders, or even those sitting in the pews sent to jail for their biblical views. “When they [realize they] could go to jail for preaching the Word of God, they’ll be concerned,” he told WND.

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Bishop Jackson cited well-known cases of the application of such a law in other nations: “In Australia, two evangelical pastors were charged with violating the State of Victoria’s ‘hate crimes’ laws last year for criticizing Islam. In Canada, a Catholic city councilor was fined $1,000 for publicly stating that a gay couple’s lifestyle was ‘not normal and not natural,'” he said.

“As an African American, I have long questioned the attempts of the homosexual community to piggy back on the legislative breakthroughs blacks have achieved in civil rights. This legislation will not just over-protect homosexuals, it will bring the threat of invasive, governmental interference with the doctrines and practice of the Church. As some homosexual activists chant, ‘Stay out of our bedrooms,’ we are here to say, ‘Stay out of our pulpits!’” said Bishop Jackson.

Lavy’s white paper, delivered to Congress just a few days ago, pointed out some of the results if the law is adopted. “It provides a federal remedy for a person who is attacked for promoting homosexual relationships, but not for a person who is attacked for encouraging people to stop engaging in homosexual behavior because it is physically and psychologically harmful,” he said. “Worse yet, it provides for federal prosecution of a murderer who spews racial epithets at the victim, but not for a cold-blooded killer that is paid to commit the crime.”

“There is no justification for this disparate treatment. Violent crimes should be punished regardless of the characteristics of the victim,” he said.

“The emotion of hate is an unfortunate reality of the human experience. But it is not a crime unless accompanied by a criminal action – and even then it is the action that is within the police power of the government, not the emotion.” he said. “The reality is that ‘hate’ crime laws are designed to punish people for what they think, feel, or believe.”

And even more problematic, he said, is the inclusion of a definition of ‘hate crime’ from section 280003(a) of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. “There is legitimate concern that once Congress makes any ‘hate’ crime a federal offense, the categories of crime will expand to include speech that causes someone to ‘feel’ intimidated, just as they have in other places such as Australia, Canada, and Sweden,” he said.

Lavy’s analysis noted that in New Jersey already it is a “hate crime” to communicate in a manner likely to cause “annoyance or alarm.”

“One would not expect a reasonable person to feel threatened or feel fear of harm as the result of an innocuous communication. Nevertheless, the entire faculty at Ohio State University’s Mansfield campus apparently agreed that university librarian Scott Savage was guilty of threatening behavior for a simple statement in 2006. His ‘threat’? Recommending four books for freshman reading… The four books were “The Marketing of Evil,” by [WND Managing Editor] David Kupelian, The Professors by David Horowitz, Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis by Bat Ye’or, and It Takes a Family by Sen. Rick Santorum.”

The recommendation made three professors feel “unsafe” on campus and the entire faculty voted to file charges of sex discrimination and harassment against Mr. Savage for “anti-gay hate mongering,” Lavy wrote. The charges were dismissed later, and Savage now has responded with a lawsuit against several university professors.

But under the proposal, such a recommended list for reading “could be prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney General.”

Lavy’s evaluation also noted that San Francisco already has stated in a resolution that organizations seeking to minister to those engaged in homosexual behavior “were responsible” for homosexual student Matthew Shepard’s death in Wyoming, even though his killers have said they did it for drugs and money.

Under such a new law, advertising its “Love Won Out” conferences, addressing homosexuality, would subject Focus on the Family to federal prosecution, he said.

At William Patterson University in Jew Jersey, a student-employee was formally reprimanded for saying he didn’t want to receive promotional e-mails advocating for the lesbian lifestyle, because that sent a message of a “threat,” Lavy said.

Furthermore, statistics show that during 2004 there were only 774 actual “hate crimes” recorded, five murders, four rape and the rest assaults – all of which can be prosecuted without special federal laws, he said.

Rev. Ted Pike, of the National Prayer Network, has been especially active in warning Christians of the approaching danger.

“Most persons who are concerned about imminent passage of the federal ‘anti-hate’ bill don’t realize that S. 1105 in the Senate and H.R. 1592 in the House are actually amendments to a federal hate law passed in 1969. During the height of the civil rights movement, ‘Title 18, U.S.C., Sec. 245’ stipulated that no one could verbally ‘…attempt to…intimidate’ another person (chiefly black) away from enjoyment of their federally protected right to equal employment, public services, housing, voting rights, jury privileges, etc. If the government finds such verbal ‘intimidation’ in a state and state officials are not enforcing these guarantees, the federal government can invade states’ rights in local law enforcement, upholding Title 18,” he said.

The proposal would make it “federally indictable to ‘…attempt to…intimidate’ a homosexual from believing that he (even if he has AIDS or hepatitis) has the right to work in a restaurant, be employed as a police officer or summer camp counselor, or has equal rights to housing and employment anywhere he wishes,” he said.

“A pastor, Christian broadcaster or publisher who verbally attempts to ‘intimidate’ homosexuals by describing homosexuality as an abomination (Lev. 18:22) are thus high-profile targets for indictment under this legislation,” he said.

He noted that it also would be illegal for a Christian church to discriminate against an applicant as pastor because of his homosexuality or her lesbianism.

He said the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith has been leading the charge for such crime bills for years, and has explained on its website how its campaign already has installed laws at the state level.

This would be quite something if it comes to culmination, but quite frankly, I doubt it will. Words are abundant but cheap in the Arab world. Actions, well, that’s an altogether different subject. Actions, like what Egypt are threatening, are unheard of. Guess we’ll have to wait and see, because I guarantee you this: the pali terrorist are NOT going to stop shooting at Israel.

Egypt has threatened to cut off its relations with Hamas unless the movement halts its rocket attacks on Israel, Palestinian Authority officials said Wednesday.

The officials said Egyptian Intelligence Chief Gen. Omar Suleiman sent a “tough” message to Hamas leaders, warning them against the continued rocket attacks. The message was delivered to PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas by Burhan Hammad, a senior Egyptian intelligence officer based in the Gaza Strip, the officials added.

They said that Suleiman also warned that Egypt would not side with the Palestinians if Israel launched a military operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

“We hope that the Hamas leaders will listen carefully to what the Egyptians are telling them,” said one official here. “Hamas must return to the period of calm so as not to give Israel an excuse to invade the Gaza Strip.”